Most TAAQ insiders and many outsiders know that Happy Creative Services, the hot little Bangalore thinkshop run by Praveen Das and Kartik Iyer (yes, he of The Higher Iyer Show), was instrumental in putting that big horrid insect (mercifully quite dead) on the cover of This Is It. While we had our suspicions that it was a visual that they hurriedly adapted from a sunk pitch for Mortein, all was forgiven when we actually saw the men at work taking macro shots, hunched over a roach that had been very lovingly put to eternal sleep.

This time last year was really busy for us. Java Jazz was on the horizon and we were busy trying to take the next plane out without having to pay our own way. The Mangalore pub incident evoked a strong response from various quarters – the Pink Chaddi Campaign being the most celebrated of them. When NDTV’s Barkha Dutt hurriedly convened a ‘We The People’ in Bangalore on Feb 14, we were invited to be onlookers as a lot of Bangalore’s hottest (under the collar) and coolest (by glam sunglass quotient) gathered to thrash out the issue. It was here that we performed the first bars of One Small Love publicly for the first time.

Happy tried our patience when we were more preoccupied with getting our airline tickets and accommodation at Jakarta sorted out with the festival organisers. In the middle of all that, they shot a video, got it edited and sent it up into the free (if somewhat firewalled) world.

One Small Love was born. On Happy’s blog, the lads wrote:

TAAQ appeared on a talk show on NDTV where they hummed a few lines from the song (The show was hosted by Barkha Dutt, and was in connection with the Mangalore incident). TAAQ set off to Jakarta after seeing the first cut. After 10 years of penning down some brilliant songs, here they were – running out of words to express their joy. Their way of approval was a big, happy smile…

For Happy, it was the first music video produced in-house. The excitement was palpable. The whole team celebrated with the customary Old Monk (One small gulp is all it takes in a tired world)…

Read the entire account here along with a nice photo-story.

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At least, they got Vinay right!

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